DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.808#0035
'THE RING OF NESTOR,' ETC. 33
relief in the Berlin Museum,86 and is preserved in the much later Assyrian
types. In the case of the Egyptian chariots, which only begin with the XVIIIth
Dynasty, and also in the allied Syrian and Hittite forms, there is only a single
pole, without the supporting rod above.
It is to be also noted that the position of the wheel of the Minoan chariot,
with its axle, as here, under the centre of the body, differentiates it from the
Assyrian and Egyptian classes, where it is placed under the back border of
the car.
But while in these respects the chariot conforms to the usual Minoan
arrangement, the simple square-cut form of its body supplies a clear mark
of distinction from the type in vogue during the latter part of the Minoan and
the Mycenaean Age. By that time the body of the chariot had come to
be of dual formation, the square anterior section being fitted behind with
an additional rounder section, sometimes with a horizontal cross-line, doubt-
less a wooden bar to strengthen the framework, but which gives it the appear-
ance of a spanned bow fitted with an arrow. This dual type seems to be that
which was exclusively in use in the latest epoch of the Palace at Knossos, as
evidenced by the incised representations on the clay tablets from the deposit
of the Chariot Tablets 87 and that of the Arsenal.88 The chariots, drawn
respectively by pairs of horses and griffins, at the two ends of the painted
sarcophagus of Hagia Triada,89 are of the same form, covered throughout
with spotted ox-hides, and these reappear in connexion with similarly arranged
bodies on a series of Cypro-Minoan cars. The dual construction, moreover, is
clearly marked on the Tiryns wall-painting,80 which also gives such a good
illustration of the details of the fore-part of the chariot frame. This fresco,
which is more or less contemporary with the Hagia Triada sarcophagus and
the earlier of the Cypriote designs, belongs to L.M. III. a (Myc. III. a). Taken in
connexion with the slightly earlier evidence from the Palace of Knossos, these
examples, coupled with a good deal of miscellaneous materials on which it is not
necessary here to enter, show that the chariots with this double body constitute
a distinct later class 91 which came into fashion apparently somewhere about
1450 B.C., and prevailed during the fourteenth century, and to a later date,
86 See E. von Mercklin, Der Rennwagen as in this instance, there are also diagonal
in Griechenland (Leipzig, 1909), i. p. 30. lines crossing the square section of the body.
In that ease, too, the axle of the wheel was 8S Knossos, Report, 1904, p. 58, Fig. 21a.
under the centre of the box-like body of 88 R. Paribeni, 11 Sarcophago Dipinto di
the car. In Assyrian chariots, down to Haghia Triada (Mon. Ani. xix, 1908), PI. III.,
at least the time of Sennacherib, the axle and pp. 55-62.
is under the back border of the body. (Cf. 80 Bodenwaldt, Tiryns, ii. p. 97 seqq.,
op. oil., p. 31.) The same system is also p. 98, Fig. 40, and reconstruction in PI. XII.
followed in the case of a chariot on an 91 Mercklin's observations (op. cit. p. 16
Assyrianising Hittite relief from Saktsche- segg.)onIaterMmoanandMyeenaeanchariots
Gosli, and again on the cylinder of Darius are vitiated by the wholly unwarranted
and Persian monuments in general. Oskar assumption that the first section shown in
Nuopfer, Der Rennwagen im Alterthum the view of the body represents its front,
(Leipzig, 1904, Dissertation), has also made so that the body was really in one piece,
a comparative study of the Oriental and He even tries to support this by the draw-
Egyptian evidence. ing of the triple shrine of the Miniature
87 Scripta Minoa, ii. 42, Fig. 14. Often, Fresco at Knossos.
J.H.S.—VOL. XLV. D
relief in the Berlin Museum,86 and is preserved in the much later Assyrian
types. In the case of the Egyptian chariots, which only begin with the XVIIIth
Dynasty, and also in the allied Syrian and Hittite forms, there is only a single
pole, without the supporting rod above.
It is to be also noted that the position of the wheel of the Minoan chariot,
with its axle, as here, under the centre of the body, differentiates it from the
Assyrian and Egyptian classes, where it is placed under the back border of
the car.
But while in these respects the chariot conforms to the usual Minoan
arrangement, the simple square-cut form of its body supplies a clear mark
of distinction from the type in vogue during the latter part of the Minoan and
the Mycenaean Age. By that time the body of the chariot had come to
be of dual formation, the square anterior section being fitted behind with
an additional rounder section, sometimes with a horizontal cross-line, doubt-
less a wooden bar to strengthen the framework, but which gives it the appear-
ance of a spanned bow fitted with an arrow. This dual type seems to be that
which was exclusively in use in the latest epoch of the Palace at Knossos, as
evidenced by the incised representations on the clay tablets from the deposit
of the Chariot Tablets 87 and that of the Arsenal.88 The chariots, drawn
respectively by pairs of horses and griffins, at the two ends of the painted
sarcophagus of Hagia Triada,89 are of the same form, covered throughout
with spotted ox-hides, and these reappear in connexion with similarly arranged
bodies on a series of Cypro-Minoan cars. The dual construction, moreover, is
clearly marked on the Tiryns wall-painting,80 which also gives such a good
illustration of the details of the fore-part of the chariot frame. This fresco,
which is more or less contemporary with the Hagia Triada sarcophagus and
the earlier of the Cypriote designs, belongs to L.M. III. a (Myc. III. a). Taken in
connexion with the slightly earlier evidence from the Palace of Knossos, these
examples, coupled with a good deal of miscellaneous materials on which it is not
necessary here to enter, show that the chariots with this double body constitute
a distinct later class 91 which came into fashion apparently somewhere about
1450 B.C., and prevailed during the fourteenth century, and to a later date,
86 See E. von Mercklin, Der Rennwagen as in this instance, there are also diagonal
in Griechenland (Leipzig, 1909), i. p. 30. lines crossing the square section of the body.
In that ease, too, the axle of the wheel was 8S Knossos, Report, 1904, p. 58, Fig. 21a.
under the centre of the box-like body of 88 R. Paribeni, 11 Sarcophago Dipinto di
the car. In Assyrian chariots, down to Haghia Triada (Mon. Ani. xix, 1908), PI. III.,
at least the time of Sennacherib, the axle and pp. 55-62.
is under the back border of the body. (Cf. 80 Bodenwaldt, Tiryns, ii. p. 97 seqq.,
op. oil., p. 31.) The same system is also p. 98, Fig. 40, and reconstruction in PI. XII.
followed in the case of a chariot on an 91 Mercklin's observations (op. cit. p. 16
Assyrianising Hittite relief from Saktsche- segg.)onIaterMmoanandMyeenaeanchariots
Gosli, and again on the cylinder of Darius are vitiated by the wholly unwarranted
and Persian monuments in general. Oskar assumption that the first section shown in
Nuopfer, Der Rennwagen im Alterthum the view of the body represents its front,
(Leipzig, 1904, Dissertation), has also made so that the body was really in one piece,
a comparative study of the Oriental and He even tries to support this by the draw-
Egyptian evidence. ing of the triple shrine of the Miniature
87 Scripta Minoa, ii. 42, Fig. 14. Often, Fresco at Knossos.
J.H.S.—VOL. XLV. D